Four problems related to front suspension lower control arm have been reported for the 1999 Ford F-150. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
Right front wheel fell off vehicle while driving. Lower ball joint cracked and separated, causing vehicle frame and bumper to land on pavement. Dealer mechanic commented that he has never seen a ball joint shear off in such a manner in 23 years of experience.
Driver's side lower control arm retaining bolt slides left to right. Vehicle now veers to the left.
The left lower control arm bolt is mounted in a sloted hole with no locking mechanism. This allows the left front wheel to go out of alignment and make "clunking" noises. I am personally aware of at least 237 failures of this model through the f150online message board. Ford maintains that it is not a problem and refuses to fix it. My dealer, bell Ford, will not fix the problem without authorization from Ford. Thus, a vehicle with the potential for loss of control remains on the road.
This problem relates to a bolt that holds the lower control arm assembly to the frame of the pickup. The bolt is continously moving in the hole and is wearing a grove in the side of the bolt. Ford has denied coverage for alignment problems which I later discovered to be the result of this bolt that moves in the frame. The dealer solution has been so far to re align vehicle, but this has been only a temporary fix. My concern is that the bolt will catastrophically fail under stress and allow the lower control arm to detach from the frame.